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‘Sexism’ in Representations of Women in BJJ

The representation of women in BJJ, grappling and sport more generally is a heated topic that can reveal gendered divisions within, for the purposes of this post, the BJJ community. I have taken part in discussions around the representation of women in BJJ in the past and most recently, kicked off the fracas related to Manto’s public posting of a sexualised portrayal of female grapplers on its company Facebook Page that emphasised women’s attractiveness to men over the skill and ability of female athletes. This story was picked up by blogs inside and outside the BJJ-sphere including, but not limited to, Tangled Triangle, Georgette’s Jiu Jitsu World and Jezebel, as well as print publications, such as Martial Arts Illustrated, which will publish my thoughts on Manto’s brand-building in its December 11 issue, Vol 24, No. 07.

'Men's mag' photoshoot with gear and space provided by Manto

Those women and men who fedback to Manto to assert that this was not a brand-identity that they could support were met with hostile accusations. These accusations covered a range of suggestions, but a couple strong themes emerged:

‘sex sells’ and any critique of sexualised marketing is born of a ‘deluded’ and ‘unrealistic’ mind

(heterosexual) women find men attractive and the representation of women disseminated by Manto is equivalent to a topless photograph of a male athlete; the suggestion being calling foul on the image in question belies a double standard

‘feminists’ are man-hating lesbians

(ironically in light of the charge of homosexuality) ‘feminists’ dislike looking at women’s bodies and are threatened by beautiful women

Clearly there are a number of unqualified assertions embedded in these accusations as well as unquestioned biases around what a ‘feminist’ is or what ‘feminism’ stands for and a treatise on the nuances of feminism, the myth of a monolithic ‘feminism’, the many feminisms, the success of anti-feminist forces in discrediting the gender-equality aims of feminism and issues around ‘crises in masculinity’ will not be undertaken here.(1) I will attempt to address some of the accusations listed above with special reference to my own brand-building activity and my relationship with Predator BJJ, which is one of the fightwear brands I have the pleasure to collaborate with on a volunteer basis.

‘Sex Sells’

The oft-quoted cliché of ‘sex sells’ is used in many industries to justify objectified portrayals of women’s and men’s bodies. This unqualified assertion is a blunt instrument and the Tangled Triangle references one marketing study that has sought to quantify and qualify the received knowledge that sex does indeed sell. Let’s accept the notion that ‘sex sells’; we’re human beings after all and sexual creatures so there is a seductive, intuitive quality to this idea that we’ll take at face value for the moment. Does ‘sex’ then equate to misogynist representations of women which objectify women’s bodies and emphasise their attractiveness over all other qualities and present women’s sexuality as something to be consumed by men rather than owned by and enjoyed by themselves? I disagree. Take, for example, the well known ‘totally organic experience’ campaign by Herbal Essences. In the ‘organic experience’ campaign, women were depicted ecstatically

enjoying the Herbal Essences shower products in a female-friendly fashion that reinforced women’s ownership of their bodies and sexuality. While all feminists may not agree with this assessment and suggest that aspects of this campaign continued to objectify or dehumanise women, for me, and I do self-consciously identify as a ‘feminist’, this is an example of using sex to sell without using mysogynist representations of women.

(Heterosexual) Women and Men Consume Images of Attractive Bodies

GSP and male MMA fighters often pose topless

The charge that women are as likely as men to gawp at pictures of attractive bodies is a reasonable one, so far as it goes. In context, it was suggested that the image shared by Manto was equivalent to an image of a ‘hot’ male body. I cannot accept this. On the one hand, while a woman may feel aroused by looking at a picture like that of GSP, above, the image itself is not overtly eroticised, unless of course one equates flesh with eroticism. I do not. For me, the mere portrayal of a body, and athletes maintain aspirational bodies, does not equate to a sexualised or objectified portrayal. For instance, in this photo of Georges St Pierre, his pose is confident and one is invited to admire his athletic physique; respect for the work that went into creating and maintaining that body is implied. Similarly, GSP is pictured with his MMA gloves and shorts, a clear reference to his sporting career and again we are invited to admire his abilities. Importantly, his attractiveness is not elevated above all other attributes, his pose is not eroticised and while his flesh is on display he is not dehumanised.

Nike’s investment in a brand identity that reinforces positive representations of the skills and abilities of female athletes is an example of portrayals of women’s bodies that are not objectified, though flesh is visible in the sports clothing modelled by the athletes featured in Nike’s campaign. For instance, in promotional material featuring Sofia Boutella, there is naked flesh apparent and while we are certainly invited to admire the strength of Sofia’s stomach and her astonishing abilities as a dancer, the portrayal of Sofia and her discipline is not eroticised, nor is she presented as an object for men’s pleasure and consumption, but rather as an accomplished and capable practitioner. In other words, it seems to me that Boutella’s portrayal in this video is much more equivalent to the GSP portrayal than to the image that was disseminated by Manto.

Meg is ‘Sexist’

Around the same time that Manto shared the image in question on its Facebook Page, Predator BJJ launched its new women’s gi line. Predator BJJ sponsors male and female athletes and chose to use ‘real’ BJJers in its advertising, including Leoni Munslow (BJJ School) and Yasmine Wilson (RGA Bucks). As a brand, Predator BJJ has consistently endeavoured not only to financially support female grapplers, but also to solicit women’s feedback on the direction of their women’s line. As a brand, Predator BJJ is all about talking with women, not at them. Women are not cast as an aberrant ‘other’ in their brand communications and in their first ad for their women’s line they crafted a beautiful image of two female grapplers that positively reinforces the skills of these athletes over their attractiveness.

Predator BJJ Predadora ad emphasises female grapplers' skills

My review of the Predadora, which was undertaken in collaboration with fellow purple belt, Lisa James, included a video which aimed to reference ‘Manto-gate’ while demonstrating that it is possible to represent female grapplers without objectification and thereby highlight some of the fallacies in the accusations directed at those who have now chosen to boycott Manto.

A contributor to MegJitsu on Facebook has accused me of ‘sexism’ and ‘double standards’ through a portrayal of ‘cat-fighting’ and ‘girls slapping asses’. Indeed, clearly the respondent ‘gets’ that Lisa and I were referencing the Manto controversy with our video, but I disagree that the content is ‘sexist’ and asked for clarification on how the content is ‘sexist’, i.e. how it objectifies women:

While I appreciate the feedback, I stand by our video as a non-sexist, though flirty and ‘sexy’, portrayal of female grapplers. As outlined above I do not accept that an image of a body is equivalent to a sexualised image of a body. Indeed, those photos with us in our sports tops were in no way gratuitous renderings of our torsos, but central to one of the points of the video and the review, i.e. that the cut of the trousers was more than ample in the seat, hence the shots from the rear and the side. In terms of ‘slapping asses’, when showing the rear of the trousers I hover my ‘predator claw hand’ behind Lisa’s bum which, simultaneously, makes sardonic reference to the ‘boob control photo’ while echoing our ‘animal characters’ that we took on for the video. I take my reviews very seriously and want very much to provide rich and accurate information for consumers and seek, with each review, to raise the bar. Collaborating with Lisa has been a great way to do this and we set out to create media that would provide a rich view of the product, entertain and demonstrate that ‘sex sells’ and ‘feminism’ are not mutually exclusive. I believe that we achieved that through copious high quality product shots, an innovative ‘flip book’ look, humorous ‘animal fighting’ and creeping round my garden and clear communication of the pros and cons of the gi (as we saw it). Of course, this is art and art is filtered through each individual’s subjectivities, but I dispute the notion that we in any way dehumanised ourselves or women, erm well we were being ‘predatory animals’ so perhaps ‘dehumanised’, but not objectified!

(1) Readers may wish to check out Susan Faludi’s Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women (Anchor, 1992), which still remains salient and an excellent popular discussion of these issues decades after publication.

LOL I love the “package control” idea. It’s true though; there would be a total outroar if they were marketing products using scantily clad pretty boys in “dirty” poses. I don’t get why it’s okay with anyone for them to undermine serious female grapplers with that sort of garbage. I hate photos like the first one you posted. They really frustrate me…how can people take BJJ women seriously when crap like that is floating around the internet? I’d love to blog about it too but I don’t feel qualified enough since I just started last month…right now I’m mainly just writing about figuring out wtf I’m doing and how much I love it. I figure I should wait until I’ve got more experience to start with the social commentaries 😛

I love this post though, it’s very well organized and written out. Great job!

Hi Reese, thanks for your comment! You don’t need experience in BJJ to express your views on how women are represented in grappling or sport more generally! Is a wider issue that anyone can reflect on regardless of matt-time! Besides, some are so entrenched in their views, that nothing can confer legitimacy – all about picking battles, I suppose! Thanks again for reading and commenting and glad to hear that you’ve joined women in BJJ as well as the blogging sorority!

If someone cares to do the research you will probably find it is the ugly, lesbian, butch type female that is against this type of Manto advertising. Men like to look at pretty things and sexy girls. Not butch lesbians. Are there any blackbelt women that share this petty view? Or the view of other petty bloggers? No I doubt it as they are too busy training bjj to care less about this tripe. Get a life instead of writing crap. Or just STFU and train.

Hi Rashid, thanks for taking the time to comment. Indeed, when I set out to write this post, I originally included a response to the homophobic undertones included in the themes outlined at the introduction of this piece and which your comment articulates to a large extent. I felt that this might take the piece beyond scope and dilute the overall argument, but I do hope to join Slideyfoot in reflecting on homophobia in the BJJ community at some stage with particular reference to how the term ‘lesbian’ is used as a pejorative not to mention the collection of bias around what constitutes the notion of an ‘ugly, butch lesbian’ and unqualified assumptions about the views of such women. You can see Slidey’s article here http://www.slideyfoot.com/2010/02/gay-bjj.html. You might also be interested in the piece referenced at the top of this post on representations of women in BJJ, as it addresses some of your observations http://megjitsu.com/a-response-to-questions-on-the-treatment-of-women-in-bjj/.

Good ad hominem attack Rashid. #1 on the list of logical fallacies. Also some “apple polishing” w.r.t. female black belts. Dude, if you are going to comment on forums you need basic reasoning and logic skills. Just waiting now for you to post a video of yourself rolling with a couple of guys in a g-string because according to you that is ok. Oil up baby!

Hi John, many thanks for finding the blog and taking the time to read and comment. Not entirely clear on who the ‘you’ is in your comment (or indeed which forums you may be referring to), and I’ll assume for the moment that ‘you’ is ‘me’. Hope that’s right!

For me, the display of bodies, male or female, is not sexist in and of itself (though how viewers subjectivities filter those images can certainly betray culturally embedded sexist notions). Rather it is the context of the representation. As discussed in the post, is the representation more about the athlete’s skills (abilities which are directly and indirectly related to the fitness and marvellousness of their aspirational physiques) or is the representation more about the sexualisation and objectification of the bodies being represented.

So, in the case of a the sort of video you suggest, it would be a very difficult artistic challenge to do so without the balance of emphasis on the sexualisation of the participants, but then again if the grappling was really bona fide (as is often not the case in fetish representations of female fighting) if might just be possible. Regardless, the point is that, for me, displaying and viewing bodies is not in itself the problem. It is more to do with the context of that representation and, of course, entrenched sexisms that tend to sexualise and objectify female bodies in a way that does not apply to male bodies.

1. As a male member of the community (and more specifically, the bjj gi niche), i think the comment about reversing roles and putting two men in sexual positions with one another is a perfect analogy. Men, across the board, would cry foul. This is a perfect example of a double standard.

2. As a social studies teacher (psychology and sociology), I teach that feminists are not pro-female, but pro-equality. I also note to my students that, by definition, I am a feminist.

3. I just wanted to say again how big of a fan of Black Eagle I have become. They’re an awesome brand, Steve Turner is the man, and good on them for choosing real, LOCAL bjj practitioners to be in their ads. Love that sort of stuff.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Brendan! Really appreciate a male voice on this and grateful for your clarification of ‘feminist’ as an individual who seeks gender equality. Seems many understand equality as a zero sum game; a sad and insecure worldview to believe groups can only lose out if other groups gain a more equal footing.

Bravo for tackling this issue head on. This is a tough nut, with a lot of layers. Frankly, I’m not sure I have a coherent position on this entire thing. I’m also not sure, but I might be a misogynistic pig. I hope not.

After writing and deleting about 10 different paragraphs, I’ll just try to sum up. It seems to boil down for me to credibility within the activity. In the Nike ad, I think that in spite of your take, the woman is absolutely being shown as sexy, sexy, sexy. While I can’t speak to how the ad comes across to women, I’d be surprised if many men could tell you it was a Nike ad after watching it. The big difference between her ad (and your ad), and the Manto ad is that the women are clearly NOT credible. In the Manto ad, they are obviously rolling around like coeds in a bad porn, not doing jiu jitsu. And they’re clearly not dressed for it, even if they were.

If the women in the Manto ad were at all credible, I think there would be little issue. Kyra Gracie has some very well known pictures of her in a sports bra and pink gi pants. The pictures are all about her being sexy, but in my opinion, what makes them cool is that Kyra is credible. The same pictures, in the same clothes but with a blonde bimbo who has never trained in BJJ wouldn’t be half as sexy, and would slide much further over to offensive.

Dang, bro! That is a brilliant observation and I find it a very persuasive point of view! I had not articulated that for myself, though your writing of it has struck a chord that feels ‘right’ – like you say this is so multi-layered it is sometimes difficult to fix your position and I would definitely like to integrate this perspective into my thinking on representations of women in BJJ and sport.

For me, I think this notion of credibility underlies part of what makes things like the Nike campaign ‘female-friendly’ as they showcase women with high levels of competence. I absolutely agree, and stated, that Boutella is shown as ‘sexy’ – just as GSP is portrayed – but I do not believe she is objectified or dehumanised and her attractiveness is not elevated above her skills. Indeed, this is really what I was trying to get at, that ‘sex’ can be used without being ‘sexist’, in my view. I think your point suggests how this can be implemented, i.e. use women/men who are credible in their niche. Show them showcasing their skills in a ‘sexy’ way, sure, but like you say one of the ‘hot’ things about someone like Kyra isn’t just that she’s easy on the eyes, but that she is a bona fide and very accomplished practitioner.

Thanks again, Steve, really appreciate you bringing an ‘action’ to the discussion, i.e. a practical metric that can be used in an implementation of marketing – ‘is this person credible’ is a good place to start!

I don’t see the Japanese including sexualised imagery in their Judo advertisements. That might be because different values transcend their concept of martial arts; ones that some wholistic Jiu Jitsu practitioners admire and practice.

Brazil is different. It has a trademark for a certain type of Brazilian sexualisation. Maybe not in its back waters, but certainly in its hubs.

How about Japanese MMA? Consider images of UFC vs Pride; the Dark underground cage fight sponsored by Budweiser vs an assymetrical battle where a good performance did not mean winning. Think about the different values that transcend those two audiences. I think there is a lot to be said about American representations of Jiu Jitsu, aside from sex.

Brazil has some way to go before it mints its very own feminist token. Advertising in some ways is an extention of democratic sentiment. I think Brazil has a right to intensify their advertising for the sake of their culture. Brazil is not America. Let it’s own leisure class of sports hobbyists decide.

Hi Fox hunt, many thanks for your comment, I really appreciate you taking the time to read and respond to the post.

I don’t disagree that different cultures have different values and the sexualisation of women is expressed differently in different places, within and without the context of marital arts. I also do not wish to impose a cultural hegemony on cultures that are not my own or to suggest one culture is ‘better’ or ‘worse’ than another.

Nevertheless, I am comfortable critiquing sexualised imagery of women produced in other cultures. Indeed, I do disagree that feminists in areas where the sexualisation of women may seem more ‘extreme’ in the mainstream to Anglo-American eyes, for example Brazil, are silent on this topic and I seek to point out the activism of Brazil’s own vibrant feminist movement in this regard here: http://megjitsu.com/bjj-women-and-feminisms/